Police shoot slashing suspect at Pa. apartments

GREENSBURG — A state trooper fatally shot a man suspected of slashing his girlfriend’s throat at a publicly owned apartment complex in western Pennsylvania, and the suspect’s victim also died of her wound, police said.

Authorities weren’t immediately releasing the name of the 41-year-old suspect or the 56-year-old victim who lived at the Hempfield Towers complex in Greensburg, about 25 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Police went to the home after another resident reported a domestic dispute about 11:45 a.m. Sunday.

The victim was in the hallway and the neighbor heard some kind of noise.

Advertisement

“And he went out there and saw there was this verbal dispute, and the actor caused a laceration right across her throat,” said Trooper Steven Limani, spokesman for the state police barracks which patrols Hempfield Township.

State troopers and police from three neighboring municipalities responded and confronted the suspect in front of the apartment complex.

“We ended up deploying Tasers, but he had a jacket on, and they didn’t seem to work,” Limani said. “He got his knife and he went after one of our troopers, who shot him.”

The suspect and victim were in a relationship, but police weren’t sure if he lived with the woman or just visited her there. The suspect’s name wasn’t on the lease, Limani said.

The complex is owned by the Westmoreland County Housing Authority. According to the agency’s website, Hempfield Towers is one of 18 high-rise apartment buildings owned by the authority that is primarily dedicated to elderly tenants. Younger residents with physical and mental disabilities have become eligible to live in the buildings under federal housing regulations, however.

The county coroner could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday, but Limani said autopsies were expected Monday on the suspect and victim.